a year after the disappearance of Madjid, 24, his mother launches a desperate appeal to finally know the truth

The young 24-year-old basketball player disappeared on the night of November 18 to 19, 2023 after a nightclub outing on the banks of the Doubs in Besançon (Doubs). A year later, his family continues to look for him, and does not believe it was an accidental drowning.

“I'm going crazy, I want to knowif Jeannina Assani complains N'Day. We have no news, the police no longer tell us anything, I don't know what to do.” It's almost a year since her 24-year-old son suddenly disappeared. Madjid Ahamadi was last seen on the night of November 18 to 19, 2023, leaving the Le QG nightclub in Besançon (Doubs). He hasn't given any sign of life since.

The death of a 26-year-old Guadeloupean soldier, beaten by three attackers on the night of Thursday November 7 to Friday November 8, almost in the same place, revived painful memories in her. “It’s always hard, for me, for his father too, for his two brothers and his two sisters,” she confides to France 3 Franche-Comté.

Because we still don't know what really happened that evening. “I I spoke to him on the phone that evening around 10:30 or 11 p.m., he was fine, he was laughing, says Jeannina. “He told me he would only come home on Sunday. I've been waiting for it ever since.”

The young basketball player from Bes.AC Basket, a Bisontin club, was partying after a match with his teammates. It was filmed around 3:30 a.m. by a CCTV camera, aimed at the nightclub parking lot. The pictures show it “very alcoholic”, according to investigators, and supported by one of his friends. He said he accompanied him to his car, parked on a lane on the banks of the Doubs, so that he could recover. And he even locked him inside, he assures. Twenty minutes later, the vehicle was empty. Without any trace of Madjid.

Significant resources were deployed the next day, November 20, to find the young man, originally from Mayotte. The police are searching the entire area with a Saint-Hubert, a dog specially trained to find missing people. It will only really score at the car level. Diving firefighters inspect the banks of the Doubs in vain. The river was in flood. The current was very strong there that night, the water freezing. Investigators believe it was an accidental drowning or hydrocution.

For their part, family and friends are increasing calls for witnesses. New research was undertaken by firefighters and police officers in January 2024, but again, without results. Madjid's body was never found.

“A year later, we are no further ahead than the first day, that’s what’s crazy,” deplores today Ruben Ignakpelila, Madjid's childhood friend. He participated in the research. With many others. “We have nothing at all, we don’t really believe in it anymore and at the same time, we still have hope, that’s what hurts.”

“It’s not a simple period,” admits Juliette Bulle, Madjid's girlfriend who would also like to finally turn the page and does not wish to return to this “accident” which she ended up accepting. The young man's mother wouldn't ask for anything better, but she can't give up. She wants to know the truth. At all costs.

I just want to know what happened to my son. I'm told he's in the water but we can't find his body. I can't mourn. I try to be strong. But until his body is returned to me, I'll think he's alive somewhere.

Jeannina Assani N'Day, mother of Madjid.

Amina Assani N'Day she, balance “between sorrow and anger”. Because for Madjid's aunt, there are still too many gray areas in this affair. “We don’t believe it was an accident at all,” she explains. And the recent drama, like the repeated incidents around this nightclub in Bison, raises questions.“When we see that there is a fight and a death because of a telephone number, we can ask ourselves questions”she says.

And with her, the whole family is now asking the police and the courts to resume the entire investigation. “We must re-interview Madjid's friends and the managers of the nightclubdemands Amina. There are elements that have been overlooked, such as Madjid's identity card. He had left it with the bosses at HQ to settle an alcohol debt. He had to pay back the night he disappeared.”

In August 2024, the police presented the family with a shoe found in Doubs to find out if it belonged to the missing person. “It wasn't one of Madjid's shoes, indicates the mother of the young basketball player. I know all his clothes and I might even recognize a piece of a t-shirt that was his if we found one. They also took a DNA sample.

“Today we know that the police can no longer help us, regrets Amina, the aunt. They just know how to tell us that it fell into the water. We can't even file a complaint, because it's still a worrying disappearance.” The family can no longer count, she says, on anything other than the association Assistance and Search for Missing Persons (ARPD). She was createdestablished in 2003 and is made up of around 500 volunteer investigators throughout the country.

Accidental drowning, voluntary disappearance, assault? The association swept aside all hypotheses, without excluding any. She exposed all the known elements, raised all the questions.

And she continues to look for clues and testimonies. “We're still on it, assures Claire Descargues, the Burgundy-Franche-Comté president of the ARPD, who refuses for the moment to say more. “It’s a big deal and we can’t divulge anything more.”

“He didn't jump into the water, there were a lot of people around, if his friends are hiding something from me, they have to tell me everythingimplore Jeannina. We can't leave a mother suffering like that.”